Current-motor



H. A. J. THIESEN.

CURRENT MOTOR.

APPLICATION FILED FEB- 9. 1920.

1,360,472 Patented Nov. 30 1920.

2 SHEETSSHEET 1.

534044] 7221650 7 @4/ dfawz if? H. A. J. THIESEN.

CURRENT MOTOR.

APPLICATION FILED FEB.9, 1920.

1,360,472. Patented Nov. 30, 1920.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

UNITED STATES HUGO A. J. THIESEN, OF ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI.

CURRENT-MOTOR.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Nov. 30, 1920.

Application filed February 9, 1920. Serial No. 357,162.

T 0 all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HUGO A. J. THIESEN, a citizen of the German Republic, residing at St. Louis, State of Missouri, have invented certain new and useful Improvements 4 in Current-Motors, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part hereof.

The present invention is directed to improvements in current motors, and particularly to water wheels disposed in the path of a stream of water, although the application of currents of air or gases is not to be excluded from my invention. The primary object sought is to secure the maximum efiiciency from a current to which the wheel may be applied, to accomplish which use is made of two wheels in juxtaposed relation rotating about a common axis but in opposite directions, the fluid discharged from one wheel operating the second wheel, the blades of the wheels being so disposed that the direction of the pressure exerted by the fluid 'against the second whee'l approaches the plane of rotation of the wheel, the deflection suffered by the fluid in operating the blades of the first wheel being taken advantage of in the propulsion of the second wheel. The

go'wheels being once set in motion, any suitable gearing maybe availed of to transmit the power to a common shaft, from whichin turn the power may be conducted to any suitable point of consumption. The advantages of the, invention will be apparent from the following detaileddescription in connection with the accompanying drawings in which Figure 1 represents a side elevation of a portion of a frame in which the water wheels are mounted, the latter being shown in edge View; Fig. 2 is a face or front elevation of Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is arhorizontal sectional view on the line 33 of Fig. 1; Fig. 4:.is a top plan of Fig. 1; Fig. 5 represents a crosssection through one bank of a stream showing in a general way the'application of my invention thereto; Fig. 6 is an enlarged front elevational detail of the brake mechanism Fig. 7 is a middle vertical transverse sectional detail of the gear mechanism between the shaftof the water wheel and the vertical shaft propelled thereby gFig. 8 is an enlarged detail plan ofthe belt transmission between 5 the vertical shafts driven by a pair bf wheels and the main drive-shaft; and Fig.

' axis of the opposite wheel. I

wheels are formed with radial blades the 9 is a cross-sectional detail on the line 99 of Fi 6.,

Referring to the drawings, F represents a suitable frame in which any number of pairs of water wheels W are mounted, said 7 frame being composed of timbers or equivalent structural members, the bottoms of the vertical members being driven into the bed of the stream and anchored in positionin any suitable manner known to the art. The frame may extend partially or wholly across the stream, and where the stream is navigable a frame may lead from each bank partially across the stream with sufficient room between opposite frames for the passage of vessels. Preferably, the bottom of the frame is protected by an apron A, extending on 7 three sides of the frame to prevent the cur- A detailed description of one pair of p wheels will answer for all the pairs of the series and I will accordingly confine my description to such pair. The shaft 3 of each wheel is mounted across the frameF,

being supported in a suitable bearing 4 at its outer end, the inner abuttingends of the shafts being prevented from sagging by a cylindrical pin 5 spanning the joint between them, said pin being loosely received in suitable sockets formed in the shafts along the common axis of rotation thereof (Fig. 3), it beingunderstood that the rotation axis of one wheel is coincident with the rotation hubs 6 of which are secured to the shafts between the bearings 4:, 4, so as to bring the wheels of each pair into juxtaposed relation. The blades of the wheels are some- The Water what curved (transversely) as they approach the periphery of the wheel, and are set at an angle to the plane of rotation of the wheel, the blades of one wheel being set reversely to those of the adjacent wheel, and the curvatures of one set of blades being reverse to the curvatures of the adjacent set sumption well understood in the art.

(Fig. 1). It follows from the foregoing that as the current flows through the wheels (see arrows Fig. 1) it will impart rotation to the first wheel in one direction, and to the adjacent wheel a simultaneous rotation in the opposite direction. It will also be noticed hat the current impinges against the faces of the blades of the first wheel at an angle considerably greater than a right angle, whereas the discharges from the first wheel impinge the faces of the blades of the adjacent wheel at substantially a right angle, the direction of the water pressure thus exerted against the second wheel approaching more nearly the direction of the plane of rotation of this wheel. This tends to produce a maximum efiiciency in the combined action of the wheels. The outer terminal of each wheel shaft is provided with a bevel gear wheel 7 which is in meshwith a bevel pinion 8 on a vertical shaft 9 mounted and guided in suitable bearings 10, the upper end of each vertical shaft terminating in a belt-pulley 11 from which leads a belt 12 over a pulley 13 011 the main drive shaft 14, said shaft being suitably supported on top of the frame F, and running the length thereof as seen in Fig. 5. The shaft 1 1 can ries a pulley 15 from which power may be transmitted to any suitable source of con- To prevent the belts 12 from slipping off their pulleys suitable idlers 16 are provided which engage the belts at points where necessary for the purpose. Each gear wheel 7 is formed with a flange a serving as a brake drum (Fig. 7), said flange having passed thereover a brake band 17 having one end fixed, the opposite end being coupled to a short lever 18 pivoted at one end, the free end of the lever being forked, and the fork arms. provided with elongated slots 8 traversed by a pin 19 carried by a nut 20, said nut playing OVBI the threaded portion of a vertical stem 21 terminating at the top in a hand wheel 22. By turning the stem in proper direction the-nut 20 is caused to move up or down and hence oscillate the lever 18 vertically. This in turn tightens or loosens the brake. band, making it possible to arrest rotation of the gear 7 and hence of the water wheel. The brake mechanism is shown more or less conventionally, being within the pur view of any skilled mechanic.

From. Fig. 5 it will be seen that we may install a frame F containing any number of pairs. of water wheels, the pairs being disposed in both vertical and horizontal series. The members of any vertical series be held against rotation, or the brakes of all the vertical series may be set so that the shaft 14 comes to a stop. Any shaft 9 is common to a given vertical series; so too a common brake-operating stem 21 controls all the brake-bands of any vertical series of the free rotation of the shaft 1 1 driven by the belts from the remaining motors, as clearly obvious from the drawings. It is further apparent that the action of one wheel supplements that of the other, and being coupled to the same shaft 14, it follows that should one of the wheels for some reason momentarily lag behind the other so far as exerting driving tension on its belt 12, its companion wheel will come to its sistance, the two wheels jointly imparting their energy to the common shaft from which the power is distributed.

Features shown but not alluded to are well understood in the art and require no description in the present connection. It is further apparent that I may resort to many changes in the matter of details without departing from the nature or spirit of the invention.

Having described my invention what I claim is:

1.,A current motor of the character described, comprising a frame, a pair of shafts rotating about a common axis. mounted across the frame and having their inner ends in abutting relation, radially bladed wheels mounted on the shafts in juxtaposed relation, the blades of one wheel being set at an angle to the plane of rotation of the Wheel and at an angle to the direction of flow of the current, the blades of the second wheel being set at a similar angle to the rotation plane but reversely to the blades of the first wheel, whereby the wheels rotate in opposite directions, a suitable drive-shaft mounted on the frame at right angles to the Wheel shafts, and intermediate connections between the wheel-shafts and driveshaft for imparting rotation to the drive-shaft, the parts operating substantially as, and for thepurpose set forth.

2. A current motor of the character described, comprising a frame, a cylindrical casing disposed therein, a pair of shafts rotating about a common axis mounted across the frame and having their inner ends in abutting relation, radially bladed wheels mounted on the shafts in juxtaposed relation, the blades of one wheel having their faces set at an angle to the rotation plane of the wheel and at an angle to the direction of flow of the current traversing the wheels, the blades of the second wheel being set similarly but reversely to the bladesof the first wheel, a suitable drive shaft mounted on the frame at right angles to the shafts of the wheels, and intermediate connections between the wheel shafts and the drive shaft for imparting rotation to the drive-shaft, the current imparting to the wheels simultaneous rotation in opposite directions, the fluid leaving the blades of the first wheel impinging against the blades of the second wheel in a direction approaching parallelism with the planes of rotation of the wheels.

8. A motor comprising a frame, a series of pairs of water wheels disposed in vertical alinement, the wheels of the several pairs on one side rotating in one direction, and those on the opposite side rotating in the opposite direction, each pair about a common axis of rotation, the outer ends of the shafts of the several wheels terminating in bevel gear wheels, a vertical shaft common to all the wheels of the series positioned opposite the shafts of the several wheels and provided with bevel pinions meshing with the bevel gear wheels aforesaid, pulleys at the upper terminals of the vertical shafts, a main drive shaft disposed on top of the frame at right angles to the wheel shafts, intermediate connections between said drive shaft and vertical shafts, a brake for each pair of wheels, a rotatable stem, and intermediate connections between the stem and the several brakes for simultaneously operating the several brakes.

In testimony whereof l affix my signature, in presence of two witnesses.

HUGO A. J. THIESEN.

Witnesses:

EMIL STAREK, ELSE M. SIEGEL. 

